May 21, 2023

Galatians: Are You Right With God?

Speaker: David Jordan Series: Journey Through the Bible Scripture: Galatians 1:1– 6:18

Download the Galatians Bible Journal Outline

Open your Bibles, if you would to the book of Galatians. The title of the message is, “Are You Right with God?” Are You Right with God? Hopefully you got one of these little Bible journals. The picture is for the kids, but the message is for all of us. And then on the inside of these, this journal, you'll kind of see an outline. I'm going to focus mostly today, though, on hitting what justification is, from many angles, because that is the full thrust of the book of Galatians. So I won't be going chapter by chapter through everything, but I will endeavor to give you an overview of the whole book.

This is part of our journey through the Bible series. I started in Genesis, we're all the way up to Galatians now, and just preaching an overview of every book of the Bible. This book has more commentary from the Reformers on it than any other book by far. So if you want to look at what it means to be saved by faith, this is your book. Let me ask you a question. What saves a person? I mean, how do we truly know if we're right with God? This this question is the ultimate question.

It doesn't really matter what else is going on in life? If we get this question wrong, really nothing else matters. Where you live, won't be important. When you stand before God and give an account of yourself to Him. How you have lived won't matter. What friends you have; what grades you have; if you're one of those on time people or fashionably late people, it won't matter. When I said what grades you have, for all of you just to clarify kids, I did not give you permission to fail all your classes...work really hard. But an A and school won't give you an A with God.

They used to tell us in seminary even you know, an F at home is an F in school. Where they mean is there are things that are more important than rigorous study and academic achievement and pursuing the things of the world the titles, the degrees, degrees and the certificates. You bring this down a little bit, in fact, how many hours you serve at church a week don't improve your status before God. If you pray all day; feed the poor; solve world hunger; bring about world peace, but don't have a right standing before God, it is of no value. If you tithe 20% of your income, not just 10, but 20% of your income; pay all of your taxes early; have people over and serve them all the time; you are just the funnest person ever; read your Bible to your kids every day; you homeschool your kids; even, does not give you a right standing before God. If you send your kids to Christian College, and you sing hymns with them every day, like the wonderful hymns that we sing here, it does not improve your standing before God. If you never say an unkind word; you're always calm and gentle and joyful; you hand out tracks every day and share the gospel all the time; and you won the Best Citizen Award; maybe your business even gets the one Louden achievement banner, which it seems like every business gets now; that does not change your standing before God. The Bible says in Matthew 5:48, "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Jesus said to him in Matthew 19:21, "If you would be perfect, go and sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me." This was Jesus talking to a person who said yeah, I've obeyed all of the law. But he was a lover of money. Know anyone like that?...whitewashed tomb. So Jesus said, I got it. Just sell everything you have. Give away everything and give it all to the poor and then you'll have treasure in heaven. Why? Because Jesus wanted him to give up his idol. We should put nothing before living for Jesus.

This is all throughout the New Testament. James 1:4, "And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Matthew 5:20, "For I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Starting to see a pattern here. We all fall short. The portrait in Scripture doesn't stop there, though. When we're thinking about salvation. Scripture specifically tells us how we know if we've come to know Him.

1 John 2:3, "And by this, we know that we have come to know him?" Now how would you fill out that sentence? You probably list some of the things we've already shot down: I go to church; I pray; I read my Bible; I try to be nice: I'm welcoming to all people. It says, "...we have come to know him if we keep his commandments," but I thought the standard was perfection. I thought we were just supposed to love God. Well, John 14:15 says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." No wiggle room, none. Not Not a single deviation. "You will keep my commandments, if you love me." 2 John chapter, excuse me, 2 John 1:6, "And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it." So to say that we all fall short is quite the understatement. The Bible even says, "...No one keeps the commandments."

Psalm 14:2-3 says, "The Lord that is Yahweh looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand who seek after God. They have all turned aside. Together, they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one." I mean, we didn't have to wait till Romans three to figure out that if you've broken one part of the law, you've broken it all, that no one even seeks after God. That was way back in the book of Psalms. In fact, you could figure that out from Genesis and creation, a perfect world with two perfect people as perfect as any human could be. Didn't take long for them to sin with only one rule they had to keep. That's it. I mean, that sounds pretty good doesn't have kids. Like, you could try it from the book of Genesis to convince your parents God only gave one rule. So should we right? Maybe up to 10? But it doesn't matter how many rules there are. The number of rules isn't the problem. Psalm 14 obviously is repeated in Romans three. It's quoted in Romans three.

So before the cross after the cross, No one keeps the Word of God as they are required to do, and if we cannot live up to God's standard, then how can a man be right with God? How can a child be right with God? How can a grandparent be right with God? That is the question. from continent to continent. If you've ever been to the the ark, and you've seen all the stories of creationism that are painted on caves all over the world, mankind and humanity wants to know, 'is God pleased with me in my life?'

We must know Once and for all, how to stand before God without one single sin to condemn us? How is that possible? Because if you're going to live by the law, you must keep all of it all the time perfectly. You see, in Galatians, this is written about 48 A.D. It was the first book that Paul wrote, and he gives some of his his criteria of, of how he came to faith. You can read that in the book of Acts. But this, this book, penned, as his first of 13 works, was written to the Galatians, probably the southern region, it's, it's the modern day Turkey, which is anything but a gospel thriving place today, and most likely the southern part of Galatia. The churches there, some of them are mentioned, because Paul had actually gone there and preach the gospel to them. But wrong thinking had crept in. And Paul was sent to the Gentiles Peter to the Jews, though they preached to both his main thrust was to go around the Gentile world, and to preach the gospel. And if you think that all of these verses I just kind of cherry picked out of the Bible to draw a line in the sand to get us going, you're going to be astounded by the deep line that Paul draws in the sand here.

Look at Galatians 1:6, Galatians 1:6. Notice there's no you guys are doing awesome greeting and this one. He just goes right into it. "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the name, in the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one. But there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be a curse." So Paul is saying there is one gospel that saves, just one, not two. Paul said anyone who believes in a different gospel than the one that He has preached to them, is to be accursed. It says in other of Paul's writings, this isn't the only book we see this in 1 Corinthians 16:22. "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed." So there is more that will get you in trouble. But if you do not have the right gospel, you do not pass go. Right, you do not collect anything at all. You are just on your way away from God. And what you need to know about this passage is that the Catholic Church has used this passage to define themselves and to separate themselves from Protestants. We are protesters. We are Protestants. That's what you're the church you're in right now. Accursed is the word anathema...in Greek.

In 2009, there was a declaration written called the Manhattan declaration. It was formed by Chuck Colson who is a Protestant, and Robert George, who is a Catholic. They actually wrote the draft called the Manhattan declaration. In fact, over 150 Catholics, and what we would call, or people who would call themselves orthodox believers and leaders worked on it. This was though a continuation of something he wrote even 10 years before that. According to this earlier, work that was drafted in 1997 called "Evangelicals and Catholics Together." The following differences should not divide Catholics and Evangelicals as quote, "brothers and sisters in Christ." Now what do you think should be on that list? And I bring this up, not because the Catholics aren't doing any good work around the world, of course they are. But they are the dominant religion around the world that tries to separate themselves from Christians and combine themselves with all people who believe in God at the same time. It is very confusing. So if you are going to say what are the issues that we believe differently than them, but should not come against our fellowship together? Right. Quote, "baptismal regeneration, the Eucharist," where the priest calls down, Christ to be crucified, again in the flesh, through the sacraments, which actually become the body and blood of Christ, every single mass. No more it is finished. It's every single time so the Eucharist, "sacramental grace," that is you can add to the grace and the finished work of Christ. "Justification by works." Remember that phrase. "Purgatory," which isn't in Scripture. "Indulgences," which means you can get out of purgatory sooner if you would just pay the Catholic Church more. "The role of Mary and the Saints and salvation, and salvation for those not evangelized." Does that sound like together? This, this should send chills up your spine. We have thousands of people in our area within three miles who believe this, who need evangelize, who need the gospel, who are believing a gospel that is contrary to the Word described in Scripture. And if you have a friend that you love dearly in the Catholic Church, then by all means, be loving and kind to them but be clear.

Many of the signers of Colson's Evangelicals and Catholics Together accord have given their name to this declaration. Purposefully, the gospel is never defined. Interesting, huh? The gospel is what brings Christians together. And if you're going to write a document that brings different faiths together, you would think at least they would define the gospel, but it is because they embrace contradictory and opposing views on the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are one of the largest mission fields in the world. And while I am incredibly thankful for their work against abortion, they hold a different gospel. And unless you think they think differently, they have pronounced over 100 anathemas against the Protestant Church, which can never be revoked. That's you. So according to their councils, you are anathema.

Why is this? Well, if I misspeak, I come up the next week, I say, you know, last week when I said this, this and this. Yeah, it's more like this. It's a little different. I messed it up from talking to you and I say something that's wrong. I can bring us in line with the Scripture because I am not infallible. That means I can make mistakes. But the Pope's when they declare things in ex cathedra, which means from the chair, they are said to have the ability to speak with infallibility. That is without error for all times. So they cannot revoke or reject any of the anathemas they had they have said against you forever in all times.

Paul uses the same word in chapter one. That is later derived. It's just a transliteration anathema. Paul says if you believe a different gospel, then you are anathema. But didn't he love them? Why would why would he come out just like guns blazing? Because he loved them. Because he loved them. Chapter One, Paul goes on to detail how He himself came to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ after he pronounces, it's my gospel or nothing. Then he tells them how he came to know and understand the gospel. That it wasn't some revelation he got from man. It was from God Himself directly. Chapter Two details a famous in early encounter with Peter and Barnabas, which you're very familiar with. It says they were quote in verse chapter two, verse 14, they were not acting in step with the truth of the gospel, and he rebuked them publicly. He rebukes them publicly. I wonder, what lengths are we willing to go to to stand up for the truth of the gospel? I mean, we might stand up to our children. But if, if they say you're out of your mind, they might not get a meal. So that's kind of an easy target. You might stand up to your in laws, of course, but everybody stands up to their in laws. Okay. That's just not a big deal. We stand up for the truth of the gospel, because we love people. But stand we must. Would we stand up to our boss? If your boss tells you don't ever speak the name of Jesus, at work, are you going to listen to your boss? When he says, "Hey, how was your weekend?" "I'd like to tell you, sir, but it's all about Jesus. So I can't." Is that what you say? When your boss says, How was your what do you do this weekend, he tells about, you know, going on a trip, because every weekend, you know, at least two free days off. And you just spent Sunday worshiping God and singing your heart out and fellowshipping and, and loving people and doing things to serve and you look at your boss and you say what you did on Saturday? Are you going to stand? Maybe God would change your boss? If you lovingly said, Well, sir, thank you for asking, or ma'am. I really appreciate you being concerned about what I'm doing when I'm not at work. And, you know, my weekend serving Jesus Christ. And if they want to change the subject and give you more work to do, then fine, so be it. Right, but at least you have said the name of Jesus to your boss, which is so loving. See, what's the key to having that kind of courage that you're willing to risk everything for the cause of the gospel? I think it's pretty straightforward. It's simple to understand. But we must seek God's approval not man's. We must seek God's approval, not man's. And this isn't just some illustration. That's exactly what Paul had to do in order to write the book of Galatians. And he recounts how he took an incredible stand, which would have derailed his entire ministry, if it didn't go well. And it was early on in his salvation experience as he shared the gospel to the whole world and it's recorded and chapter two for us. You see, in chapter two, verse nine, it says this, "And when James and Cephas," that's Peter, "and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceive the grace that was given to me they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. So while theologically he is going to tear down the idea that circumcision has any value whatsoever at all, including portraits of baptism, he is going to tear down all of those things in his theology. Notice Peter, James and John. The big guns, the ones discipled by Jesus Himself. He goes on to rebuke Peter and Barnabas publicly. Now if that didn't go, well, he would have probably had to go to even further lands to have any kind of ability to preach the gospel. They could have torn down who he was, but right after they gave him quote, "the right hand of fellowship," if you want to know where that phrase comes from the right hand fellowship, it's here, that that right hand of fellowship that they extended to him, because they recognize the genuine grace of God in his life. He then later has to decide by the grace of God, are you going to align yourself with my most favorite leader or me? See, because before the Gentiles came, and were kind of included, Peter or Peter was spend time and Barnabas eating with the Gentiles. But then when the Jews came, Peter was like, oh, no, I'm going to look bad, because I'm hanging out with the Gentiles. And so he withdrew from them, and stop spending time with them. I mean, we do this. We, we shun groups of people to hang out with others, whether it be economically or socially or whatever. You know we're guilty of this all the time. But he had to figure out, am I going to allow maybe overlook what Peter's doing because he's kind of a big gun, you know. He's already done all these things, and I'm kind of the new kid on the block. Look in verse 13, of chapter two. It was bigger than just Peter. "And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically, along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy." So Peters influence was prominent. It led the Jews the Jews away. It led Barnabas away, who was sent off by the work by the Holy Spirit member. "Set aside, Paul and Barnabas for the work I've called them to." That's what the Holy Spirit said. They are set aside for the gospel of God's grace to share the gospel with the world. And now they're not even eating with the people they're supposed to be sharing the gospel with. And Paul has to, has to decide. Should I just turn the other way?

Verse 14, "but when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel. I said to see fists before them all. If you though a Jew, live like a Gentile, and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? You're doing the very thing you're preaching against? In other words, how can you do this? How could you call yourself a preacher in step with the true gospel, when your whole lifestyle is against what you're saying? It's not that Peter had one sin, everybody's sinful. It's that Peter was okay with his sin. He was okay with rejecting an entire people group. Thankfully, Peter and Barnabas repented and responded like all mature believers do. We don't hear any any of this type of action anymore in Peter's ministry nor in Barnabas'. And this is important. It's establishing that we must not only believe the right gospel, but we must also live the right gospel. Okay, it's not a living according to the law, as we're going to see. It's a live it's living according to the truth of the gospel of God's grace.

So if our works can't save us, if any sin condemns us, how do we stand right before God? How are we justified? And justification is the defining issue between Catholicism and Protestants. Justification means quote, "to be right with God." That is to have a righteousness before God - not a polluted righteousness, but a perfect righteousness before God. Chapter two verse 15 and 16, After giving this demonstration of his authority of saying the gospel, the one that I preached is the only one you can have after that demonstrating that you must live by that gospel and not just mentally ascend to it, then he goes into how a person is justified.

These are some of the most significant verses on being justified by faith and all of Scripture. Chapter two, verse 15 to 16. "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified." You cannot add to the finished work of Christ. We live by faith. We do not live by the law. The law reveals sin. It does not save. Look in chapter two verse 19. "For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." I died to the law. Does that mean it's just woohoo, free grace, we live however you want and God's going to understand? I'm just going to do a few more good works than a than the bad things and I'm going to live my life for for what the world calls a good person and then I'll be good with God. No, the law simply reveals sin. And if you desire to be right with God, according to it, you have to keep all of it all the time perfectly.

Romans 10:4 says, Christ is the end of the law. "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes...believes. It tells us why Christ had to die. Galatians 2:21 specifically tells us this is important. It relates to the gospel. Verse 21, in Galatians two, "I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." Okay. Then Christ died for no purpose, because no one is righteous. No, not one. Christ, the righteous one had to die for us. Okay? Are we tracking with that? Am I putting you guys to sleep? This is like the greatest news ever. It means all of your all of your self punishment for how you live is futile. It means your depression because you don't live up to the standards you set for yourself. Don't make God more happy. All of the things you like to do in life, and then you're convicted because you're living a sinful lifestyle. It doesn't make you more righteous. It just allows you to see the fact that salvation is by grace. Salvation comes through faith. And your faith is not an act of righteousness in and of itself, or else Christ died for no purpose. Your faith is merely the vehicle by which God delivers salvation. That too is an act of grace.

What we do many times is we feel bad about how we live. And then we don't like people who preach or teach or tell us that we're living bad. Because we already know that. The Holy Spirit convicts this the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. That's John 16. Right? We know that we're convicted by sin. So we don't like people that tell us that we're not living up to God's standards. But we need to remind ourselves that the standard is perfection. And the only one who can offer perfection is Christ himself. That is why Paul says it's Christ who lives in me. So, Paul, after talking about the reason why Christ died and and that we need the righteousness of Christ. Then in chapter three, he says, "Are You foolish, having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh." This is where antinomianism comes in. "Anti," means against, "nomianism," the law. So against the law, this is where you get legalism from. Where I'm trying to do it all on my own. And what it does is it just makes us depressed.

Like we see the perfect righteousness of Christ. We see how we're supposed to live. And then we see how inadequate in the flesh we are to live that way. And so we focus on how we live instead of how Christ lived for us. And if you've, you know, ever seen those people that are just grumpy all the time, they're just pummeling themselves, not living up to whatever standard they have set for themselves. But like we sang this morning, are we satisfied in Christ alone or not. And if we are, then we have all of the satisfaction we need in Christ, not in Christ plus this relationship that I want, not in Christ plus this job, not in Christ plus, man, we had a good three hours with the kids. It's just Christ. And once you're satisfied, in Christ alone, you are free to bless others. Because you're just serving them, you're just loving them. You're living out of the strength that Christ provides. That is the life that we aim for.

Well, they were steeped in all kinds of Jewish traditions and trying to live by the law and they thought they were saved and fine because of their heritage. We do this today. You know, all the time. We think, well, we were born in a Christian home, and we grew up, you know, living the way we should. And I'm just say, because I know God, and I know he loves me. And that's my heritage. Right? And nothing could be further from the truth. So in Galatians, 3:7 and 8, Paul kind of cuts the legs out of the heritage argument. He says, "know that it is those who are, it is those of faith, who are sons of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand, Abraham, saying in you all the nations shall be blessed." Having Abraham as your father doesn't save any more than being part of a bible church or a Catholic church or church saves. Just showing up in here doesn't make a person a Christian. Just preaching doesn't make me saved. You can study the life of the Wesley's if you want to see how far someone can go into theological and academic training, and be loved by the world over from continent to continent, and still not be saved by their own admission. So how are we saved? Galatians 3:9. "So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith." It is through your faith in God and God alone, that you are saved. It is when we confess our sins, and we turn to Christ that he saves us. And our faith in him is not faith in our own faith. Our faith is just the vehicle of God's delivery to us. Our faith is the vehicle by which he gives us the grace to be saved. But it is also a faith that works itself out in our lives. And this is why we talk about obedience. This is why we talk about living for Jesus. This is why we talk about living by the Spirit. I was just listening to a sermon on Galatians from a church. And they think that this passage is central to how everyone should live. And I would agree, but they think that there's somehow a, a way that you can call in the spirit and manifests all of these miracles in your life. And what they do is they undermine the gospel by saying, look at the miracles now we know you're living by the Spirit.

I think Noah was a man of faith. And his preaching saved no one. I think Jeremiah was a man of faith. They threw him in a cistern, a deep mud pit that they used to the collected the rainwater. No one listened to him. I think Isaiah was a man of faith. And people listened, and then rejected him and listened and rejected him over and over and over again. You see, our faith is in the object of our faith. The object of our faith is Jesus. So when you scrutinize your life, and you see that you fall short, your confidence needs not to be in your own faith, but in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In the the truth of the gospel, the truth of who Jesus is, and what he claims to be. And when we sin, we confess our sin. We don't say I look, you're a hypocrite you sin all the time. Well, that's why I need Jesus. The hypocrite is the one who doesn't confess their sin. The liar is the one who says they don't have sin. Right? That's first John. Right. That's why we need an advocate who pleads with God on our behalf all the time. So when we sin, we confess our sin. So our faith allows us by the grace of God, to walk by the Spirit.

And you say, how in the world in this life, am I able to live by the Spirit? Like what does that even mean? Well, you don't have to wonder. Paul explicitly tells us what that means in Galatians, chapter five, beginning in verse 16. And this is, this is how we live out our faith. Okay, and Paul is going to give us basically two ways to live. But I say, Galatians 5:16, "but I say walk by the Spirit." Okay, so he's going to define what walking by the Spirit looks like, "and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit." So he's, he's putting these two things in contrast to each other. "And the desires of the Spirit or against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do." Do Christians have bad desires that come up within them and they act upon them? Yes, the Spirit is there to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Verse 18, "but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident," and flesh here simply means the works that we do in the flesh, "sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity." Were pretty good until he said, enmity, right? "Strife," strife, really? "Jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy." I mean, there wouldn't be another commercial ever played if we just took care of that one. "Envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warned you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Let us not make the mistake that because we don't do some of these things, we're not guilty of all the law. If you have fits of anger and your okay with that, and you do nothing about it, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.

If you have rivals, do you feel protected, protective of your position at work, or at school, or in the church? He's writing to churches. Lots of churches in Galatia. He's writing to them, to these people who claim the name of Christ. He's writing to them. Do we have divisions in the church and things like these? Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. If that doesn't draw you to your knees to beg God's forgiveness, nothing will, nothing will. There's not a single person in here who is not guilty of something on that list, if not a lot of it. Not a single person, including myself. But the Spirit is there to keep you from doing those things; to teach you a better way to live; to give you a strength that you don't have on your own. If you had the strength on your own, you wouldn't need the Spirit. Verse 22, this the context of this wonderful verse that I know you all know, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things. There is no law. You thought that meant government law. It doesn't mean government law. It means God's law. It means the Word of God that tells us how to live rightly. There's no law against being loving and kind and, and good to other people. Does that sound like a better deal than futilely trying to obey every single word in Scripture? Paul is trying to release them to live freely by what Jesus Christ has already accomplished.
And those who verse 24, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus, have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." He doesn't just mean by your own strength, that you have done away with those things. Any program in America can help you do that. If you just muster up the courage, if you're just diligent enough, but the language used here, "those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh." It sounds like we have done that. But Christ did all that work on the cross. Verse 25, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another." He is demonstrating a Spirit-filled, loving life. We are either led by the desires of the flesh, and that is what we live for, or we are led by the Spirit, and that is what we live for. And if you want to know exactly what those things look like, those verses are clear.

Our lives demonstrate if we are justified, our lives do not justify us positionally with God, that is to make a saved, but our lives demonstrate if we are indeed already saved. Our lives show if we live by the Spirit and are justified in God's sight by faith, or if we're living in the flesh for the pleasure of sin. And if you struggle, and you fight and you feel like I just have not lived how I should, then guess what, that's why God wrote Galatians. Because he knew you would. He knew everybody is going to struggle with this, living out their sin. But when you crucify something, it loses all of It's power. You no longer have to live under the power of that sin to draw you to itself. You can say, "I am drawn to Christ."

This life of faith in Jesus Christ is invigorating. it captivates the heart and the mind. It motivates the body and the will to do the will of God. It sets our feet in motion to please God and to live for him. It allows us to respond with kindness when someone is rude. It allows us to serve one another instead of saying, well, don't treat me like a slave. You remember you are a slave of Christ and you live for Him. This life is not about positioning ourselves against one another are walking around like Grumpy misers, like the world is crashing in on us all the time, and we have nothing to live for we set Jesus Christ before our eyes and we say I am satisfied in him in him alone. And as we are justified, as a free gift of His grace, no matter how you've lived, no matter what you've done, God sees you as perfectly righteous in His sight.

Let's pray.

Lord, God, please forgive us of our sins. Please help us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. Please help us Lord to put off this, this desire to sin. And I pray that by your spirit you would invigorate us to live for you. That it would be something that you call us to that we would not be bored with the faith or think that there is more to life than this. But Lord God that you are the end all. You are the Alpha and the Omega. You are the one who calls us to yourself where you have made us. Father God, I pray that You would help us to fight by the power of the Spirit to live for you.

Let's just take a moment right now. And ask God to save us. If we already saved to ask God to give us the power to live for him.

Father God, we love you. We thank you that we are justified by faith as a free gift of God. May we live for your glory and yours alone, in your precious Name, Amen.